An article such as a sanitary napkin, a panty liner and a pad for incontinence of urinary (hereinafter, referred to as “absorbent article”), which absorbs and retains bodily fluid discharged from a wearer's body, is widely known in personal sanitary art. Such an absorbent article typically includes a top sheet, a back sheet and an absorbent core disposed between the top sheet and the back sheet. The top sheet is configured to be liquid-permeable to allow the bodily fluid to permeate to the absorbent core for retaining the bodily fluid, while the back sheet is configured to be liquid-impermeable to prevent the bodily fluid from leaking out to stain a wearer's skin or undergarments.
By way of example of prior art absorbent articles, FIG. 1 shows an absorbent article disclosed in International Patent Application Publication No. WO1997/001998. FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line II-II of FIG. 1. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the absorbent article 50 includes a cover 52, a baffle 54, a primary absorbent member 56 and a secondary absorbent member 58. The cover 52 is liquid-permeable and is placed in contact with the wearer's body. The baffle 54 is liquid-impermeable and is attached to the wearer's undergarments. The primary absorbent member 56 serves to absorb the bodily fluid through the cover 52. The secondary absorbent member 58 is formed with an aperture 60, through which a portion of the primary absorbent member 56 is exposed.
However, in the prior art absorbent article 50 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the secondary absorbent member 58 includes a nonabsorbent polymeric composition of 50˜95% and thus the secondary absorbent member 58 hardly contributes to spreading of the bodily fluid. That is, the spread velocity of the secondary absorbent member 58 is relatively slow. Thus, although the aperture 60 has an enough capacity to retain a large amount of the bodily fluid in an instant, the bodily fluid temporarily retained in the secondary absorbent member 58 fails to be immediately absorbed by the primary and secondary absorbent members 56, 58. As a result, the wearer may feel wet. Besides, the bodily fluid temporarily retained can leak outside of the absorbent article to stain the wearer's skin and undergarments.